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91

Christmas Club / Christmas 2019

« Last post by gaggleofseven on May 18, 2019, 12:16:11 PM »

Hi everyone! I'm starting my Christmas list now so I have some accountability on at least the handmade gifts. So far, I know for certain I will make:

One crocheted afghan for my mom - colors TBD. DD is going to teach me a new crochet stitch next weekend.
Five (possibly eight) crocheted Christmas stockings - Red Heart yarn, possibly this pattern: https://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/crochet-christmas-stocking-pattern

I appreciate suggestions on gifts for teachers! I was thinking of sewing or quilting gift card holders, similar to these: https://www.sparklesofsunshine.com/fabric-gift-card-holder/. I appreciate other ideas, too!

I hope some of you will join me on this thread, and share your ideas and plans!
Jennie

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Managing a Household / Re: Saturday, May 18

« Last post by gaggleofseven on May 18, 2019, 11:42:46 AM »

Hello Cheryl and all who are reading! Finally some sunshine at our house today. I slept in a little this morning, which was a nice break from the usual routine.

DH and DS are out getting haircuts, while I am doing housework. I just finished the vacuuming, and the washer is doing its job so I thought I'd sit down for a minute and say "hello."

It's dry enough that we can get the mowing done today, and I need to weed the flower beds. All of those weeds are causing me angst. DH wants to spread more mulch, so we will make a trip to the lawn & garden store. I also need trash bags and a few other things. I better write down the list before I forget! Ha ha

Tonight I'm going to look at easy crochet patterns for afghans. I would like to get a jump on some Christmas crafts, and it's been several years since I've made an afghan for my mom. Also, everyone needs stockings, and I'm trying to find a quick & easy crochet pattern. My skill level is definitely "beginner"!

That's all the news at my house today. We are looking forward to Memorial Day, but the long range forecast looks like rain at this point. Hopefully that will change.

Have a great weekend!
Jennie

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Managing a Household / Saturday, May 18

« Last post by Cheryl on May 18, 2019, 10:56:14 AM »

Hello, Alice and everyone!

I meant to post earlier this morning but I fixed my coffee and sat down to read instead.

I’m trying to decide what I want to do today.  I need to do some house cleaning but that doesn’t sound very appealing today, not that it ever does, We might go to Lowe’s after lunch to see what their plants look like.  We had not planned on having a garden this year, but I am really missing tomatoes.  Walmart’s plants look terrible and I don’t know of any for sale locally. Oh well, guess we will see.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

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Managing a Household / Re: Friday May 17

« Last post by Alice on May 17, 2019, 08:33:39 AM »

Good Morning,

It's Friday thankfully.  I feel like this has been a very long week. My allergies have started this week and not only do I sneeze but I also itch especially in my face. My face becomes swollen and inflamed and resembles poison ivy. It isn't but every doctor seems to think I've been in poison ivy. Not so.

We are going to go through our home and garage out back this weekend and give everything a good purge. I just feel that this has to be done because the garage out back has been a holding spot for storing stuff we probably won't ever use. Clothes that are a bit too small for me and I keep holding on to them. My stomach is distended and all shirts seem to be too small in the stomach area. I don't know what's going on. Hubby just re-did our closet so now is a good time to sort and purge and I want to rotate winter for summer clothes. I need to wash and put away winter jackets. Probably should do the fuzzy warm blankets that are scattered all over the house. Not sure about the comforter yet since nights can be cool yet.

We haven't had a garden in 6 years since we moved to this house where there is no good place to put one. But I do have containers that I like to put herbs in. I need to start looking for and planning for what I want this year. Basil, oregano, cilantro, thyme, rosemary are my staples but I might add more. I want to do companion growing but I need to know which ones like to be grown together.

Dinner tonight is undecided right now. My husband always says "there is always something and we haven't starved yet" though he isn't the one putting it all together. But he is correct that there is always something. I do need to get a few groceries either tonight or tomorrow but nothing for my freezer either--just fresh things and cat food.

Alice

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Managing a Household / Friday May 17

« Last post by Cheryl on May 17, 2019, 06:57:34 AM »

Good morning!

I’ve been up for a while but just now getting around to posting.

I was trying to be quiet because my granddaughter is here for the week, and I thought she was still asleep.  I think I heard whispering coming from Emily’s bedroom so they must be up.  I need to get some breakfast going for them.

I went to Walmart yesterday for the things I needed and stuck to my list.  I did not buy anything for the freezer!  When I did my inventory a few weeks ago I found several bags of vegetables I froze last summer, enough that we don’t really need more for a while.  We haven’t planted a garden this year so hopefully we can eat through what’s in there soon.  We have so much going on around the house and Tony’s working 6 days a week, coming home at night and trying to put a roof on our house, that it just seemed like a good time to take a break with the gardening.  I have 5 plants - squash, zucchini, cucumber, and 2 dill.  That is a huge change for us!

Well, guess I better go see what the girls are up to.  Hope you all have a great day!

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Managing a Household / Re: Thursday, May 16

« Last post by Alice on May 16, 2019, 07:00:33 AM »

Good Morning,

Yesterday afternoon created a HUGE stress moment for me. Previously, I wrote we needed to get our garage/barn out back re-roofed due to leakage. That has been arranged and my son called me yesterday afternoon at work and said that while he was gone, the products for the roofing was delivered and they put it on the house roof not that garage/barn roof out back! I called the roofer and told him what had transpired and he assured me they would come back and correct that and they did later in the day. Not helpful at all as I deal with stress and a little anxiety. This whole deal will be stressful for me until it is done. Today they plan to do the job.

Cheryl, we also have a geriatric cat who also tends to vomit a lot. She sleeps on our headboard and when we hear her starting we need to jump fast so it won't land on us or our bedding. She's been to the vet and we could do a lot of testing but I'm not paying the big bucks for that.

I am formulating my weekend plans. My hubby's job this week was to put up some kind of shelving in our double slide reach-in bedroom closet. It is much too small of a closet for two people but it is the only closet we have. The former owners had the wire shelving that had brackets underneath to brace them in. Those brackets took so much room away from storage that I need to get rid of those. I asked hubby to build some shelving which he is just finishing today. We now have two shelves that use the space so much more efficiently. He has two hanging rods on his side and I have one with more shelving. He has one shelf. It looks like this will work so much better.

Tomorrow, I hope to have a finished non-leaking garage/barn so my hopes are to put things back into their respective barns and do some good cleaning out and purging of junk we've been storing. That will be a dirty job. I also need to get some fresh veggies, milk and a few other things for use during the week. Along the way we need to stop at the local recycling center to recycle and then maybe hit two stores that we know mark down meats in the morning. Maybe we'll do that first and then tackle the dirty part of the day.

Our recycle center is scheduled to close June 30 and I'm pretty sad about that since I recycle so much. Now I have to put all that stuff in the trash as I have no other options. Apparently it costs them too much to recycle so they opted to close.

I'm fresh out of ideas for dinner tonight. It will be a crazy busy day today on the homefront but I'm working all day so I won't be home. Hubby is home this morning but not this afternoon. I hope the roofers can do their work without supervision. Or else I need to come home which I really cannot do. Very stressful. In light of all this, I have nothing planned for dinner tonight. It might have to be hotdogs (I found 3 pkgs. in the freezer!) but those are not my favorite food. Or maybe a big salad which I do have. Or maybe just an omelet.

Alice

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Managing a Household / Thursday, May 16

« Last post by Cheryl on May 16, 2019, 06:10:15 AM »

Good morning!

I woke to the sound of one of my cats hacking up a hair ball.  Nothing makes me jump out of bed faster than that.  This particular cat has long hair so unfortunately he has lots of hair balls, even with being brushed.

I am enjoying my coffee while formulating my game plan for the day.  I need to run to the store for a few things like paper towels, toothpaste, dish soap.  I won’t be buying any food because there’s plenty here even though it might not be what they want.  I need to make a plan.  I’ve been sort of winging it when it comes to supper.  Last night Emily fixed fettuccine Alfredo.  I don’t eat pasta so I ate leftover green beans and the new potatoes my dad dug up for me on Sunday.  There’s not much better than new potatoes fresh from the garden!

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Managing a Household / Re: Thursday, April 18

« Last post by greyhoundgirl on May 15, 2019, 04:29:50 PM »

No, I'm still raising kids and wish I were done. I'm over it. Still have a 9 YO so it will be a while before we get to have an empty nest. Oldest heads to college this fall. I'm just not a "traditional" SAHM any more. Between work and backpacking I feel like I'm not home much at all and really don't give a rip about cooking or preserving or much about house stuff in general. It's more like survival mode for food these days, lol.

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Managing a Household / Re: Wednesday, May 15

« Last post by Alice on May 15, 2019, 12:44:42 PM »

Yes, well, we do have a problem with freezer stuff right now. I have a deep freezer which I like better than an upright because I can stuff so much in there. But the negative side is finding stuff that falls to the bottom.

Here's my situation...I have a lot of frozen strawberries that we don't use a lot. We have a gallon and a half of ice cream that I used for my daughter's bridal shower and we're not really getting through that. Same with some sherbet. I have those two halves of a pizza (we didn't really care for Aldi pizza). My son makes breakfast sandwiches in bulk so he can take those to work and we don't touch those. I have containers of leftover meals ready for my son to take to work also. He works weekends and 12 hours days so he needs lunch and suppers. He has breakfast at home but he lives away from home when he works weekends since his days are so long. That's why he needs three meals a day for three days.

I have flour of various sorts in the freezer for pancakes, bread, etc. I have a couple pounds of ground beef and a couple pounds of rolled sausage for whatever. I have a lot of chicken legs and thighs that we stocked up on a while ago but no other meat at all. Veggies are mostly green beans and cabbage from dad's garden and some zucchini squash. There is some butternut squash puree and very few tomatoes. I have a lot of ham and some turkey roasts (boneless) that are similar to the big rounds you might see in a deli that is ready to slice. When I tried to slice it, it started to crumble but I do have a lot of thick sliced turkey frozen. It is these kinds of things that really need some creative thinking to put a meal together.  I also have some breakfast burritos that I make in bulk so anyone can grab a quick breakfast.

I am simply out of ideas for the "limited" stuff I have in my freezer. I have used all the meat and veggies and just haven't found good enough prices to stock back up. I really want a good juicy steak on the grill but meat is so terribly expensive that I cannot buy meat.

I have lots of rice and pasta in the pantry and a fairly decent pantry of stuff but it still needs creative thinking to put together something. I actually forbid going out to grab something (I'm such a mean wife and mother!) because that is the money better used to buy groceries.

I have also been on the freezer cleanup mode but when I see a good deal on something I buy it so I never see the bottom of my freezer either.  I haven't done a bit haul for a while with the exception of fresh things. I remember the days of shopping every other Saturday and I have a van full of groceries for my family of 5 (6 including an exchange student) but now it's only 2 1/2 each week. We can hardly get through stuff now before it starts to go bad then it's a quick "throw it in the freezer" time. Oh, and I rarely bake anymore either. I used to bake things every couple of days and now I bake once every couple of months.

Alice

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Managing a Household / Re: Wednesday, May 15

« Last post by Cheryl on May 15, 2019, 12:21:36 PM »

Alice, I was just thinking yesterday how I like to hear the ways you use items you find in your freezer and all the good ideas you have for those things.  I did a major freezer cleanup last month and we are finally seeing the bottom of it.  My problem is I keep adding things to it before I get it completely empty.  I am not going grocery shopping this week.  I am determined to empty that freezer soon and defrost it.